REGINA, Saskatchewan, September 26, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a letter to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan, a group of Regina doctors has expressed concern that recently introduced guidelines for doctors treating unplanned pregnancies could limit the availability of abortion.
The doctors described the guidelines as “troubling both by the very fact of its existence and by the apparent imbalance of its content,” according to a Leader Post report.
The pro-abortion doctors said that singling out abortion with specific guidelines is unnecessary, as it is just another medical procedure.
“Deficiencies in practice are at least as frequent with the respect to the provision of other procedures,” the doctors’ letter stated.
However, Bryan Salte, legal counsel for the CPSS, told the media that because abortion is a contentious ethical issue the college stands behind the guideline amendments brought into force in February.
“Nobody ethically says I won’t do cardiac bypass surgery; but there are surgeons who say, ‘Ethically I will not perform abortions,’ ” said Salte.
The pro-abortion group worries that abortion numbers may drop because women may not be told about chemical abortion drugs early enough in their pregnancy, and that a delay in a referral to an abortionist may cause them to decide to continue the pregnancy.
“It is noted that delay increases the risk and thus the physician who first sees the patient must not be a cause of delay and must either expeditiously provide the service of counseling and then referral if necessary or refer the patient right away to someone who will. There have been enough problems in Saskatchewan regarding this issue in the past so if there is going to be an updated guideline it should be firmer about that particular point,” the Regina doctors wrote.
The CPSS revised guidelines for unplanned pregnancy require pro-life physicians to refer women considering an abortion to another physician.
“Any physician who is unable to be involved in the further care and management of any patient when termination of the pregnancy might be contemplated should inform the patient and make an expeditious referral to another available physician” the revision states.
A Saskatoon physician commented to Campaign Life Coalition when the revised guidelines were introduced that it is important to remember that they are “guidelines,” not “rules,” saying that a physician “should,” not “must,” make referrals for women contemplating abortion.
Guidelines, he said, do not indicate that there is a reprimand for not referring for abortions. Because it’s a moral issue, he said he did not expect that physicians would be forced to do it or be reprimanded for not doing it.
The new guidelines do however require that physicians provide extensive and accurate information to a woman about all her options, including any “community agencies and services that may be of assistance to her in pursuing each option,” as well as provide information on the “precise nature” of the abortion procedure, and on “the known immediate risks” such as “uterine perforation, infection, hemorrhage” to ensure that she able to give informed consent before aborting her child.
Physicians must also inform women of the “known long-term risks,” including “impact on future fertility, incidence of future spontaneous abortions, ectopic pregnancy and premature birth” as well as “the known psychological risks.”
The document further advises doctors that, “an unplanned pregnancy is not necessarily an unwanted pregnancy.”